'Just in time' - National media have Arsenal Premier League title theory after Nottingham Forest win

Arsenal returned to winning ways in the Premier League with their victory over Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Goals from Bukayo Saka, Thomas Partey and Ethan Nwaneri secured a 3-0 win for the Gunners at the Emirates Stadium in their first match after the November international break.

Mikel Arteta's side went into the game nine points behind leaders Liverpool in the Premier League table and without a win in their previous four top-flight fixtures. That gap has now been reduced to six points, with the Merseyside club due to face Southampton on Sunday afternoon.

Arsenal still have 26 more league games to play this season before the title race will be officially decided. The Gunners were handed a boost in the race for the title as Manchester City were beaten 4-0 at home by Tottenham Hotspur just a couple of hours after their win over Forest.

With Arsenal getting three points on the board in the Premier League for the first time since the start of October.

Here, football.london takes a look at how the national media reported on Arsenal's win over Forest in the Premier League.

Jonathan Wilson wrote for The Guardian: "It was the first day of the rest of their season. After a patchy start to the campaign, littered with red cards and brain fades, double saves and points needlessly dropped, what Arsenal needed more than anything else was a straightforward win.

"It’s in the routine Saturday 3pm kick-offs, just as much as in the live televised clashes, and in wins ticked off almost without incident, far more than in the great expenditures of emotion, that championships are decided.

"Arsenal may or may not be challenging for the title in May but this, at last, was a performance and result that allowed them to believe they might be able to recover from a run of two points from their previous four games."

James Gheerbrant said for The Times: "Was this the return — just in time — of the missing piece, or the restoration — too late — of a leader whose absence has already dealt a mortal blow?

"Without Martin Odegaard, Arsenal mustered 11 points from seven games, at a meagre goal difference of +2. With him, we were reminded here that they are capable of football that is both authoritative and effervescent, and carries a title contender’s stamp of class. Nottingham Forest have been flying high, but they were simply brushed aside here by a commanding, controlled performance that revolved around one man.

"Odegaard had made his return from injury in the 1-1 draw against Chelsea before the international break. In his second match back, he was sublime, drifting, gliding and zipping the ball about magisterially on the rain-slick pitch."

Alan Smith concluded for The Mirror: "Mikel Arteta maintained his impassive look when the full-time whistle was blown.

"But deep down the Arsenal manager will have been delighted by this emphatic response to the four-game winless run that has threatened to derail their title ambitions.

"With captain Martin Odegaard making his first home start since late August and Bukayo Saka rejuvenated following an international break focused on recovery, the Gunners laid on a platter of delicious attacking football.

"Saka scored the opener before feeding Thomas Partey for the second goal, consigning Arteta’s decision to leave Kai Havertz and Declan Rice on the substitutes’ bench as barely a footnote.

"Electric academy graduate Ethan Nwaneri, 17, converted a clinical third three minutes after coming off the bench - his first senior goal for the club."

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